The beautiful 289cid V8 candy apple red car was restored to GT specifications in 2000 and features upgraded springs, 4-barrel Motorcraft AFB carb, headers, working Boss hood scoop, and dual exhaust. “The odometer shows just 110,600 miles. A recent appraisal notes that the hood, doors and trunk are properly fitted and fender areas free of obvious imperfections. The metallic paint is in good condition with no signs of rippling or orange peel. A few, very minor, paint flaws on the hood can only be seen on close inspection.”

Here’s how you can win. To purchase tickets make out a cheque to the Thunder Bay Museum, and send it to 425 Donald Street East, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada P7E 5V1, or use Visa or MasterCard by calling (807) 623-0801, faxing (807) 622-6880, or emailing them at mustang@thunderbaymuseum.com. Please include your name, phone number, charge card number, its expiry date and your mailing address. (Must be 18 or over to purchase tickets. Winner is responsible for picking up the car or arranging for its shipping).

This past weekend RK Motors Charlotte debut their custom 800hp, 527 cubic inch, 1967 Shelby GT500 at the Mustang 50th Birthday Celebration in Charlotte. The car, dubbed the “RK527” certainly looks fantastic, however don’t let that fool you. The subtle looks don’t give much away. So much so she’s being branded the “Shelby Sleeper”. You see, if you simply looked down the body and glanced in the interior you would never guess what was waiting underneath the hood. Instead of following the normal choice of a 428, RK Motors chose to go with a Jon Kaase built all-aluminum 527 cubic inch Boss Nine V8 that churns out a dyno-verified 800 horsepower on pump gas. Trust us, you have never seen a Shelby GT500 tribute like this before.

The RK527 will be driven by Kauffman and co-pilot Johnston on the Hot Rod Power Tour in June. “We’re going to drive it from here to Wisconsin, over 1,400 miles, and then all the way back another 1,400,” said Johnston. For the full story head on over the RK Motors website.

We’re never short of amazed at what unique and truly special Mustangs we see cross the auction block. Every year we see fantastic examples of Mustang history change hands and this year is no different.

This April Mecum’s will be presenting this Hand-built 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429. What makes this car unique is not only that it was hand-built but the fact only 50 of these prototypes were ever produced. This car is #38 and the first Candyapple Red Boss 429 built and sold. and while we’re on numbers it’s worth noting that only the first 15 prototypes were used for testing meaning this car is only the 23rd offered for sale to the public.

The car is set to cross the block between April 24-26 at Mecum’s Kansas City Spring 2014 event.

Hand-built 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 highlights:

– The first Candyapple Red Boss 429 Built and Sold
– KK #1238, the 38th Boss 429
– One of the first 50 hand-built prototypes
– Early 820-S NASCAR engine
– Complete ownership history
– Original build sheet
– Rotisserie restoration completed in 2009 by Randy Roberts of Muscle Car Restorations, Inc
– Final detailed markings by Boss expert, Ed Meyer
– Listed in and verified by the New Mustang Boss Registry
– The first 15 were test cars so this the 23rd car offered to the public

Most of us would dream of owning a Mustang. Owning two? Well that would be something else! But how about owning 43? That’s just what Mustang fanatic and collector Mike Berardi has achieved. The video comes courtesy of Ford as apart of their countdown video series for the upcoming 50th anniversary celebration.

The collection is not only big, it is unique too with Berardi setting out to collect only unique or special Mustangs for each year. Such as his 1964.5 Mustang Convertible Indy pace car.

Is this not a garage you wish you had the keys to? Check out the video below!

The all-new Ford Mustang headlines a trio of new pony car-themed pinball games to be revealed at the Chicago Auto Show. Crafted by Chicago’s own Stern Pinball, the Mustang-inspired games combine two prime examples of 20th century American pop culture – the coin-operated pinball machine and the original pony car.

“For five decades, Mustang has represented some of the best of American culture, inspiring a feeling of freedom and independence for people around the world,” said Steve Ling, Ford car marketing manager. “We’re excited to have Stern Pinball join us here in its hometown of Chicago with its brand-new games featuring Mustang.”

Stern is introducing three new Mustang-themed games this spring featuring cabinet and backboard artwork that pay tribute to 50 years of Mustang. The pro-level machines, designed for arcades and other public spaces, feature Mustangs from the past five decades. The more feature-rich premium edition focuses on Mustang Boss 302, Boss 351 and Boss 429 of 1969 to 1971 and 2012 to 2013.

Stern Pinball is one of many companies producing officially licensed products to celebrate 50 years of Mustang. Other licensees include Mattel with a 50 Years of Mustang Hot Wheels collection, Caddyshack with a limited-edition Shelby GT500 Mustang golf car and the Mustang GT pedal go kart from Berg. A range of apparel and other products are available from shopfordmerchandise.com.

The all-new 2015 Mustang makes its first Chicago appearance at the auto show alongside six of Stern’s pro-level Mustang games. Top-ranked competitive pinball player Zach Sharpe will also be on hand to demonstrate the new game and set benchmark scores for show visitors and media to challenge.

A special limited-edition model signed by the game designer features the 1965 original and the all-new 2015 Mustang. Both premium and limited-edition games feature genuine chrome Mustang badges on the speaker grilles.

“The first car I ever bought was a 1970 Mustang Sportroof with a 302, and I’m currently restoring a 1969 Mach 1,” said George Gomez, executive vice president for game design, Stern Pinball. “In designing these new games, we wanted to celebrate the freedom and fun of driving Mustang.”

There’s been many a slip twixt the cup and the lip and in the car world there’s cars that exist but the explanation for why they exist has been lost to history. Such a car is a car I saw at the Greenfield Village Sports Car show in 1964. It was candy apple red. And it was short, shorter than the Mustang of the times. And it was a fastback when Ford hadn’t introduced the fastback yet. The car was recently displayed at The Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in a whimsical category they inaugurated called: “What Were They Thinking?”

The car resulted not from Ford’s Styling studios, but actually from Ford’s prescient tie-in with the popular custom car wizards of the days, guys like George Barris, Gene Winfield , Darryl Starbird and Dean Jeffries. They might have been known coachbuilders around the world like Pininfarina or Ghia off in Italy, guys who affix little coachbuilder’s badges to some of the cars they design but damn it, they were our coachbuilders.

Ford started the traveling road show called The Custom Car Caravan in 1962. Originally the plan was to have the cars built at Ford styling but as venues increased to show them they started accepting cars commissioned by private owners to be built at custom shops.

One of the private outside-Ford designers was an Indiana lad named Vincent Gardner. He had won the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild award while still in high school. That was an award where you built a model car and were judged on that, receiving, I believe a college scholarship. He began in the auto industry before the war with the Auburn Automobile Company, when they were developing the Cord cars, very advanced for their time, and worked on Cord 810.

Then he went to Studebaker where he worked under the famous French-born Raymond Loewy, who did a lot of Studies including the Avanti. But Gardner yearned to hang out his own shingle and as early as 1951 was doing his own designs. Roughly a dozen years later he began working with Andy Hotton’s Dearborn Steel Tubing, a shop in Detroit that built prototypes for Ford, everything from race cars to limousines. In fact in ’64 they were busy making a lot of ’64 Mustangs into AFX drag racing cars.

When the Mustang came out, he saw this exciting new car as a good vehicle to showcase his talent. He glommed onto a Mustang in 1963. It was one of ten pre-production 1965 chassis.(chassis 100009) He shortened the wheelbase, and did his own fastback, similar to the one Ford offered in ’65 ½ but yet with its own character due to its wheelbase, shorter by 16 inches. Some think he chopped out too much but he wanted a dramatic car and only by making it a two seater could he do that. Interestingly, Gary Witzenberg, a renowned historian, says that a GM designer Gail Halderman, told him that Ford had tried to make a two seater prototype but when they chopped the Mustang shorter, they found there wasn’t enough room for the spare tire, fuel tank, and luggage. There are a half dozen pictures in various Mustang books showing two seater Mustang hardtops so Gardner was merely echoing what was already happening inside Ford, though the public didn’t see those two seaters.

The Gardner Mustang ran a 260 cu. In. V8 though that was bored out to 302. One account is that Ford heard of the car while it was still being built and invited it to be part of the caravan. One of those who saw it was a man named Bill Snyder. He asked the Ford representative at the show if it was for sale and was told “no.”

LOST, THEN FOUND

Now comes the weird part. Since Ford regularly destroyed concept cars (they had hundreds, jammed into warehouses, I’ve found some of them myself) he was afraid they would destroy his car when its show biz career was over. The urban legend is that he took it out of the cars stored from the Caravan and walled it up inside an Inkster, Michigan warehouse. Then he didn’t’t pay the rent. Ironically an executive at the Insurance company that paid the claim on the lost car bought it when it was found six months later, and eventually sold it. This according to a story on the website InMyGarage.com.

Most people forgot it existed. But Bill Snyder didn’t. In 2011 he told some of the car’s history on a website called the Shelby Forum . One interesting comment he made there was that the chassis was shortened by Ford Engineering. This account is somewhat in contrast with the story that did not know of the car being built until after it was being built, though I am sure engineers working on the Ford drag racing Mustangs saw the car being built at DST as they used Andy Hotton to build the drag Mustangs.

He discovered mention of the car in Motor Trend in 1965, when they were talking about a limited amount of the cars being built and those with fiberglass bodies. At the time he was driving a 1954 Corvette and thinking of getting a new car, and this one would have a fiberglass body.

He also says it was stolen from the our base in Inkster, MI, which when you use the word “stolen” indicates the presence of an insurance payment being made, because otherwise the implication is that Gardner reported it stolen. Ponysite.de in Germany, which has a lot of histories of rare Mustangs, says Ford only rented the car from Gardner.

Snyder told the website: “Long story short the car was hidden behind a wall in a nearby warehouse with rent paid for over twelve months. During that time the insurance company paid for the lost car believing that it had been broken up for parts. Eventually the wall was knocked down and the insurance company took possession. Then it was stored outside in Connecticut till 1969 when it was advertised in Hemmings. I bought it over the phone and it sits in my garage now awaiting restoration. It has few miles but the several years out side in the weather ravaged the candy apple lacquer paint as well as the SS wheels and chrome.” Snyder got the car restored, by Michael Capozzi of Capaldi Enterprises and displayed it to much acclaim.

Lesson learned? Bill Snyder lusted after this car for a long time, and in fact, you could say that for a long time he was the only one who still remembered it who still had the torch burning for it. When it came up for sale in Hemmings, he was ready willing and able to buy it, though he couldn’t summon up the moola to restore it until some years later.

What’s the car worth today? Well, it spans that once inseparable gulf between factory concept car (called “dream cars” in the Fifties) and custom car. In this case it was Ford showing the car so it makes it a “factory approved” custom, welcoming it into the fold so to speak. If it can be documented that Ford engineers were involved in the chassis shortening or Ford stylists approved Gardner’s drawings, then it becomes even more of a factory prototype….

Even if you read all the stories that have been printed since its restoration and display, a few questions remain unanswered: Who did the insurance company write the check out to? Gardner or Ford? Did Ford shorten the chassis for DST or did DST do it according to their own ideas? Did it have a fiberglass body, if not all fiberglass, which parts? And was the design for Ford’s 2-plus-2 fastback already “hardened” and scheduled for production before this car was done? If it was, we can’t quite say Gardner’s creation spawned the production model. Finally what did the insurance company pay out for it and how much did the insurance executive sell it for? If anyone knows the answers, we’d love to hear them.

We often see quite a few modified Ford Mustang that while not to our taste may appeal to others. But this is one modified Mustang we just cannot understand. Who could do such a thing. Beauty must be in the eye of the beholder in this case, we hope!

While we don’t actually know who put together this interesting Mustang together we cannot help but feel a little sad that such a nice example of a 1967 Mustang was lost to make way for this. Yes, you see correctly. They have cut the top off a 1967 Mustang Coupe and covered it in a pink and grey monstrosity of a body kit. We have to agree with the comments of StangTv in that it “deserves to be crushed and burned, its ashes sunk deep into the Pacific Ocean. It’s that bad.”

According to the reddit thread the car appeared for sale on a users Facebook feed with an asking price of $18,000.

It’s hard to believe that a Boss 302-powered ’69 Shelby Mustang, the only one ever built, has stayed nearly unknown for all these years. Now the car has been fully restored to the way Kar Kraft assembled it in 1969. One story has the following version as the reason for the car’s existence. This version says, that near the end of Shelby’s ’65-’70 production run, the plan was for Ford and Shelby to use the exciting new Boss 302 engine as the foundation for a special run of 36 GT350 fastbacks featuring this engine instead of the 351 cu. in. engine they had scheduled for 1969. Essentially, the cars were going to be Boss 302s but in Shelby clothing. Oddly all of them were going to be the same color–Grabber Yellow with black stripes and a black interior. Yet, just to confuse historians decades alter, the prototype was an early production Boss 302 in Acapulco Blue, one of the four available colors for ’69 Boss 302s. It was what car collectors call a “pilot” car, i.e. a car built to test the assembly line to see if they could build the car right before they start cranking them out in earnest.

You would think that the solid-lifter, Trans-Am-bred-in-racing Boss 302 would be a shoo-in for the Shelby. After all, hadn’t Shelby himself demonstrated that back in ’68 when Ford brought out the 428 Cobra Jet in the Mustang on April 1, 1968, and very soon after Shelby announced the GT500 KR (“King of the Road”) using that engine? He was quick to capitalize on whatever Ford came up with.

Of course Shelby had already upgraded the small block engine once, dropping the 302-4V that he had in the ’68 Shelby GT350 in favor of the 351-4V Windsor, which matched the Boss 302 at 290 hp. But though it sounds bigger, and is bigger in cubic inches, the Boss 302 was the real performance engine of the two, the 351-4V Windsor (named after the plant in Canada where it was built) was a pedestrian engine with ample torque but less high revving ability.

The Boss 302 by contrast, was fitted out with all the good stuff: four-bolt mains, canted valves, and a Holley four-barrel riding on an aluminum intake. Ford homologated the Boss 302 for Trans-Am by producing a run of production Boss 302 fastbacks in 1969 and 1970. They also were producing the Boss series in a big block with the big Boss 429 engine in ’69-’70. And scheduled was the Boss 351 for 1971.

So maybe it was the change in body style, the idea came too late. Plus Ford already had the Boss 351 planned. Based on the ’71 body style. And to tell the truth, Ford really didn’t need Shelby anymore. Whatever sales commission he was being paid on each Shelby that Ford built wouldn’t have to be paid anymore because Ford owned the name Boss. Also, the name “Shelby” wasn’t working its magic anymore. The ’69 Shelbys, both the GT350s and GT500s, were proving to be dogs in sales. Shelby wrote his mentor, Lee Iacocca, at Ford and requested an end of the Shelby Mustang program. What cars there were still in the pipeline with re-numbered (after getting FBI permission) as ‘70s and dolled up with front spoilers and hood stripes.

ONE PROTOTYPE SURVIVES

Now we come to the barn find part. This pilot car escaped. Nobody knows how. The numbers mavens have researched it ad infinitum and determined that, yes indeed, Ford’s Dearborn Assembly plant assembled this Mustang with a Shelby consecutive unit number on May 6, 1969, coincident with ’69 Boss 302 production. According to the experts, the car carries both a Boss and Shelby VINs, the VIN SN 9F02G482244 having a “G” identifying it as a Boss 302 engine; while the consecutive unit numbers that began with “48” were Shelbys. Plus it shows signs of being a executive order car, i.e. a car made at an executive’s request. That number was DSO number 9999. The Shelby club lists it in their Shelby American World Registry with its G-code VIN that stands out among a sea of M-code (351) and R-code (428 Cobra Jet) numbers in that model year.

Shelby by 1969 had actually decamped from his Los Angeles airport factory, the airport harassing him because he was using airport property without having airplanes (they ignored his “gooney bird” DC3) So Mustangs bearing the “48” series i.d. numbers usually went to the firm Ford contracted to make Shelbys, A.O. Smith Company in Southfield, Michigan. However, the researchers at various Shelby clubs have determined that this particular car — 9F02G482244—was diverted to Kar Kraft, a Ford-owned mini-factory that did special projects, such as building (in ’64) the Ford Thunderbolts or later, the Boss 429s.

A later owner, who prides himself in his anonymity, is reported to have contacted Carroll Shelby for more information about the car’s raison d’etre. Unfortunately by that time all the engineers Shelby could name, including Shelby-American’s head engineer, Fred Goodell, were deceased so not only couldn’t Shelby himself tell him much about it but he was not working out of Dearborn by that time and never even saw this Boss 302-powered GT350.

At first the owner, who has a beautiful website wanted to call it a prototype but reports are that Shelby felt better about the term “pilot car,” because this was still a standard Boss 302 albeit with Shelby fiberglass and equipment, including front fenders, a grille, a hood, foglamps, side scoops, special interior trim, a rollbar, and other Shelby-specific features.

One clue that the bodywork was originally planned to be a Shelby is that it still has the factory-drilled firewall holes to plumb wiring to the foglights that were standard on the Shelby but not on the Boss 302s. Another owner of the car before the restorer found a set of Shelby wheel centercap decals and an extra foglight switch under the original carpet.

Usually prototypes have some pictures that were taken by the automaker deep in the company’s files. But when George Huisman, a previous owner of the car and owner of Classic Design Concepts in Detroit, dove into Ford’s archives he had no luck. One explanation for this might be that this was an “end run” around Ford management. Shinoda angered Ford designers by reporting directly to Knudsen, ignoring the chain of command. So maybe no pictures were taken because they didn’t want to tip off management until they saw how the car turned out. One unusual feature is that the car is the only known ’69-’70 Shelby with manual steering.

Its history since it was a Ford-owned pilot car has been patched together. It is believed that it was a Ford pilot car for only two months then a Ford engineer bought it, disguising it by removing all the Shelby-styled body parts. Of course some bits remained included the interior, the rollbar, the roof snake badges, and five-spoke Shelby wheels. But that would only look like an ultra enthusiast who owned a regular Mustang but was a wanna-be Shelby owner. That engineer is reported to have kept the car for about a decade before selling it in 1979 or 1980.

And then, unbelievably, the car began what almost looks like an All-American tour, going from one owner to another, a dozen in all before it landed with the owner who has restored and documented it. It was when it got to Indiana that its specialness was recognized and it got its Shelby bodywork replaced. The owner was so meticulous he was able to get sheet metal that was stamped within two weeks of the build date, meaning that even if it was a new panel, it could have been built within two weeks of the original.

Reconstructing the interior, the restorer got close –estimating the interior is now 75 percent original. The C8FE block is stamped X48. The C7FE crank, rods, and heads are original as per Boss 302 as well. Still seeking validation for his car, the owner even went to Carroll Shelby and Edsel Ford II to ask for signed documents that would certify that the car was the one and only Shelby built with a Boss 302 engine. Shelby not only autographed the glovebox door he added the words “One of One.”

As the author of a series on barn finds, I’d very much like to include this car but there’s still a lot of questions I’d like to ask (I wrote the webmaster of that site, but no answer was received) , such as: “How much did the Ford engineer who bought the car from Ford disguise the car?” “Did he change the body panels to regular non-Shelby ones?” and “Why did Ford not consider it for production?” Are there any Mustang fans out there who remember coming across this car before it became a famous barn-find? There’s a lot of mysteries in the muscle car world and this is one of them….
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THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss’ latest book Incredible Barn Finds can be ordered from Enthusiast Books (715) 381-9755

Images of new cars sitting in a snowy driveway wrapped in a big red bow have long been a staple of automotive advertising this time of year. But unlike those marketing scenarios, this is the true story of a 16-year-old boy who got a very special Ford Mustang for Christmas in 1964.

As 1964 drew to a close, Mustang had been on sale for about eight months, and it was already clear the car would become one of the biggest new model hits of all time. That first year it would top 418,000 sales.

One of the factors that made Mustang so appealing was the ability for customers to personalize the car to their own tastes. With three available bodystyles, four engines, 17 colors and myriad other options, Mustang was widely promoted as “The car designed to be designed by you.”

Throughout Mustang’s history, the car was available in some special-order custom colors such as Playboy Pink in 1968 and Mystichrome in 2004. In 1964, a very special Mustang fastback was sent to the paint shop to be coated in a pearlescent white finish with slim blue racing stripes over the top of the body and along the rocker panels.

Other exterior details setting this Mustang apart were a functional hood scoop, chrome trim on the three gills in the headlamp buckets, and fender-mounted rearview mirrors similar to Mustangs sold in Europe at that time.

There was another, more subtle detail most people probably wouldn’t notice. The rear fuel filler cap, which was typically adorned with the galloping pony logo, featured the initials “EBF II,” for Edsel B. Ford II, great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford. Then-Ford Motor Company CEO and president Henry Ford II had had this Mustang prepared as a gift for his son’s 16th birthday, which fell on Dec. 27, 1964.

“I came downstairs that Christmas morning with my sisters, and my father indicated I should take a look outside,” said Edsel Ford, Ford Motor Company director. “This amazing Mustang was sitting in the driveway, and I immediately grabbed my coat and shoes and went outside to check it out.”

The younger Ford slipped into the custom cabin, which had been finished in blue leather with aluminum trim, and took the car for a short drive, taking several laps of the driveway in front of the house.

“The rumble of the high-performance 289-cubic-inch V8 was always intoxicating,” said Ford. “I only drove it for a few minutes that first day because there was snow on the ground, but as soon as the roads were cleared, I drove it almost every day.”

Despite being a one-of-a-kind car, that Mustang became Edsel Ford’s daily driver as he finished high school and went off to college. Sadly, the car was destroyed in an accident four years after Ford got it for Christmas when a friend borrowed it; fortunately, no one was hurt.

In the 49 years since getting his first Mustang, Edsel Ford has owned a few others, along with other Ford cars that had more space for his wife and four sons. After graduating from college, he joined the Ford marketing department, eventually working on campaigns for Mustang and many other Ford vehicles.

“That Mustang was my first car and one of my favorites,” he said. “Seeing the photos that were discovered in the Ford archives brought back many fond memories.”